Probing surface microthermal properties by scanning thermal microscopy

Scanning thermal microscopy (SThM) was used for probing surface microtherma l properties of a wide range of materials from polymers to metals. We demon strated that SThM measurements in contact mode can provide unique capabilit ies of unambiguous measurements of localized thermal conductivity of a wide variety of surfaces with sensitivity better than 0.05 W m(-1) K-1 and late ral resolution in the range from 0.03 mu m for hard materials to 1 mu m for compliant materials. Variation of surface microthermal conductivity correl ates fairly well with known bulk values for hard materials. For compliant m aterials, significant contribution of local deformation to measured values of thermal response is noted.